Fukushima treated water’s effect on humans sufficiently small, TEPCO says

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:30 JST, May 19, 2022

The Nuclear Regulatory Authority has thoroughly evaluated the effects of treated water on the human body. In particular, the authority has estimated the radiation dose based on the assumption that people eat marine products containing trace amounts of radioactive materials on a daily basis and are exposed to radiation from the seawater while aboard ships or spending an extended time on the coast.

As a result, the dose is estimated to be in the range of 0.03 to 0.4 microsieverts per year, according to the amount of treated water to be released and concentration of radioactive materials in the water based on Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.’s plan.

TEPCO has confirmed that the radioactive dose to the human body was sufficiently small as it has met the authority’s requirement of “considerably below 50 microsieverts per year.”

The government and TEPCO have doubled the number of monitoring points for tritium concentration in marine waters around the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant from 64 to 132, and also increasing monitoring frequency. The two parties will ask a third party to analyze seawater and compare the third party’s results with those conducted by TEPCO.